For the second time this week the Twins have called up a player they signed out of an independent league.

First it was reliever Caleb Thielbar and now it’s first baseman Chris Colabello, who signed with the Twins last year after dominating in the Canadian-American Association.

Colabello is 29 years old and wasn’t all that impressive at Double-A in 2012, hitting .284 with an .828 OPS, but after playing for Italy in the World Baseball Classic he moved up to Triple-A this season and hit .358 with 12 homers in 46 games.

Actually, this guy WAS pretty impressive at Double A — New Britain. Guy hit 37 doubles, 19 home runs with 98 RBIs, and a line of .284/.358/.478 with 94 KOs and 47 BBs in 496 ABs. I saw him in a few games and he appeared to be a pretty solid, steady player.

I agree with “proudlycanadian” — good to see guys like this get a chance. Colabello looks like he deserves a shot, and here’s wishing him the best of luck — except for when he plays against my favorite team.

Those are pretty impressive numbers, unless you factor in that Colabello was a 27/28 year old player playing against guys 5+ years younger than him. He’s 29 now and a year away from being on the “wrong side of 30.”

From a purely numbers veiw, that’s good. From an age/level of competition point of view, I wouldn’t expect too terribly much, but I’ll be rooting for him anyway. He isn’t what you’d call a prospect, but I think he can be a solid RH option and good fill-in for Plouffe.

True that he is older than many in AA, but he appears to have consistently carried over his approach into AAA — a good sign for the future. Of course, there’s nothing to guarantee he won’t be Quad-A, but at least he’s been consistent in his minor league career.

There’s a difference between the numbers indicating that a guy has a future as a productive major leaguer, and the numbers indicating that a guy should be able to hold his own as a backup in the majors this year and maybe next. There’s enough data that minor league numbers are pretty translatable to major league performance. The EL isn’t a high-offense league, so an .834 OPS is pretty good. And the 2013 numbers are obviously outstanding.

Wasn’t all that impressive at double-A in 2012? Hey dipshit he hit 19 home runs and drove in 98 runs….but you just mention his avg of .284? Get your facts straight. Typical ignorance out of people like you who don’t what wtf your talking about.